For it is
said that Caesar observed that Cassius urged better grounds of
preference, but that he could not pass over Brutus. And on one
occasion when some persons were calumniating Brutus to him, at a time
when the conspiracy was really forming, he would not listen to them,
but touching his body with his hand he said to the accusers, "Brutus
waits[597] for this dry skin," by which he intended to signify that
Brutus was worthy of the power for his merits, but for the sake of the
power would not be ungrateful and a villain. Now, those who were eager
for the change and who looked up to him alone, or him as the chief
person, did not venture to speak with him on the subject, but by night
they used to fill the tribunal and the seat on which he sat when
discharging his functions as praetor with writings, most of which were
to this purport, "You are asleep, Brutus," and "You are not Brutus."
By which Cassius,[598] perceiving that his ambition was somewhat
stirred, urged him more than he had done before, and pricked him on;
and Cassius himself had also a private grudge against Caesar for the
reasons which I have mentioned in the Life of Brutus. Indeed Caesar
suspected Cassius, and he once said to his friends, "What think ye is
Cassius aiming at? for my part, I like him not over much, for he is
over pale." On the other hand it is said that when a rumour reached
him, that Antonius and Dolabella were plotting, he said, "I am not
much afraid of these well-fed,[599] long-haired fellows, but I rather
fear those others, the pale and thin," meaning Cassius and Brutus.
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